


A Postponed Date

by Neverever



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 11:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3066731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverever/pseuds/Neverever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony is supposed to go on a date with Steve,  until a battle with Hydra goes badly for Steve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Postponed Date

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Winterstar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterstar/gifts).



> This was written for Winterstar as an Captain America/Iron Man Exchange gift. She asked for a Steve in peril and an early-in-the-relationship Tony/Steve story. Hope this fits the bill!
> 
> Thanks to my beta for her review.

Tony had a date.

He had a simple plan. A reservation at a local Italian place with decent food, an offer to see a movie (not specified), and no plans beyond that except to spend as much time as possible with the greatest guy on Earth. Maybe the Universe. Tony could say that, he was an Avenger after all, he had the stats and experience to make the comparisons.

But life had a funny way of saying no to what Tony wanted. 

So, no date tonight.

He did get a nasty fight with Baron Strucker and the new Hydra in return. With a fantastic view of Steve in full Captain America mode. He’d settle for that, he figured. After all, Steve was the man in Tony's original plans for the night.

The fight was getting nastier by the minute, with Strucker pulling out the AIM and old SHIELD weapons in a bid to wipe out the Avengers. It all started with a firefight with the police two days before Christmas. Driven to the wall, the NYPD had called in the Avengers. 

After a few setbacks, and a field re-evaluation, the team came roaring back under Steve's confident command, pushing Strucker's minions hard. Tony listened to the flow of information coming from his teammates and JARVIS as he and Thor pinned down the Hydra heavy artillery.

Thor only grinned at the anti-aircraft missiles that came at them, batting at them as if the missiles were only flies at an Asgardian picnic. Tony didn't feel the same ease. His data analysis indicated Strucker was trying to misdirect them, draw their attention elsewhere.

"Cap, do you see what I see? At your five. That building they’re trying to defend."

"Got it, Iron Man, could be their base," Cap replied. "On my way to check it out."

A traffic cop had stumbled into a hidden Hydra base when he ticketed an illegally parked delivery truck. And, stupidly, Strucker's people picked a fight too close to home and only realized it now.

If they managed to wrap up the fight in an hour, Tony could probably salvage something of the evening. Steve wouldn't object to pizza and a movie on the television. Or would he? Tony panicked a little, maybe Steve expected some razzle dazzle from him, not some high school-style couch date.

Hulk crushed a Hydra armored vehicle. Thor was smashing his way through robots and foot soldiers. Clint and Natasha were cleaning up around the edges of the fight, keeping civilians safe like Steve always wanted. It was looking real good. Especially when he aimed a repulsor at three Hydra goons, and they immediately dropped their weapons.

You can’t buy that kind of respect, you can only earn it.

Tony scanned through the melee, trying to identify Strucker or any other high-level Hydra goons. No dice. “Cap? Cap? Anyone hear from Cap?”

“Cap? He went in that building over there,” Clint replied. Just like Tony told him to.

One of a thousand nondescript, multi-story brick buildings in New York. The only thing interesting about it was that Cap had gone in there and hadn’t come out yet.

“J. Tell me everything you know about that building.”

“Sir, it’s owned by Ambient Solutions, which appears to be a shell company.”

“One of many belonging to AIM, I bet.” Nondescript Building suddenly became more interesting.

“How’s it going?” he asked over the comm.

“We’re wrapping it up here,” Natasha replied.”NYPD is sending more prisoner transport vans.” 

“Good. I’m going in after Cap.”

If it was anyone else on the team, Tony would have been more worried about not hearing from them. Steve had a tendency to perform without a net. He threw himself into the action and wasn’t always in position to immediately respond. Then he’d show up as fresh as a daisy. But maybe Tony should worry more.

Smoke filled the hallways and got thicker the deeper Tony went into the building. “Cap?”

No answer. 

Tony passed by empty offices and labs as he explored the buildings. There were signs of Steve all over the place -- broken doors, a nice round shield-sized divot in a wall, unconscious Hydra soldiers splayed out on the floor.

He still couldn’t raise Steve on the comm. “J -- Find me Steve.”

“Sir, Captain Rogers is about 30 yards ahead of you.”

Tony ran to meet Steve, blasting open doors and debris as he went. He heard gunshots and the noise of fighting the closer he got. “Hey, Cap,” he shouted as he found Steve in the middle of knife fight with two black-suited Hydra soldiers.

His blood ran cold when he saw one of the soldiers stab Steve right in the abdomen and drop him, covered in blood.

As he fell, tough to the core, Steve kicked the legs out from under the Hydra goon and struck the man’s head with his foot. The man screamed in agony. Tony repulsored the other goon before he escaped, rendering him unconscious and a little burnt.

“Steve,” Tony gasped. Ripping the helmet off, he dropped to his knees next to Steve. “What happened?”

Steve flashed one of his brilliant sunny smiles at Tony. “Long story,” he said as nonchalantly as possible.

Taking off his gauntlets, Tony tried to cradle Steve’s body, but Steve moaned when Tony moved him. His uniform was soaked in his own blood. It looked like Steve had been shot more than a couple of times, knifed, and beaten. Steve was bleeding from so many areas Tony had no idea where to start to staunch the bleeding.

“J -- get every EMT you can find here, as soon as possible. Now.”

“On it already, Sir.” 

Steve batted weakly at Tony’s arm. “Don’t worry about me. Stop them.”

Tony looked at Steve in horror. _You’ve got to be kidding me, Cap._ “The team’s got this.” He put his hand on Steve’s forehead, which felt cold and clammy. He brushed back his hair, coated with blood flecks. He never felt so helpless before.

“I’m going to have to take a raincheck on our date,” Steve croaked out. His eyes closed and his hand in Tony’s fell limp.

“J!”

“EMTs on their way, Sir. Will be at your location in ten minutes.”

Steve might not have ten minutes! “Come on, Steve! You’re the stubbornest man who ever stubborned. You’re not going out like this.”

There was a slight smile on Steve’s pale lips. Steve tried to say something again, but his breathing was labored and faint.

“Stay with me, Steve, stay with me,” Tony repeated over and over like a prayer.

The EMTs rushed in and took over. Tony backed away to let them do their job. It was like watching one of those medical dramas on television in slow motion. Except the EMTs were competent. And it was Steve under their care.

They finally hoisted Steve up on a gurney to take him away. 

“Where are you taking him?” Tony asked. 

An EMT shouted the name of the hospital at him as they hustled Steve away. 

Tony stood, empty, alone, with Steve’s blood on the armor and on his hands. An alarm rang in the helmet, mocking him as reminder of a time before the Hydra fight. If they led safer lives, he’d be on that date with Steve right now.

~~~~~

At the hospital, Tony listened with Natasha and Bruce as the lead doctor carefully explained the extent of Steve’s injuries. As he had guessed, Steve had been shot in several places and stabbed a number of times, with two stab wounds to the abdomen and one to the chest. He had a few broken bones from the fight, and a number of other minor wounds and massive blood loss for the record.

Tony’s heart sank. Steve had a healing factor, but he couldn’t come back from the dead.

Bruce calmly discussed the course of treatment with the doctor. Steve had already undergone surgery to stop internal bleeding. And they were planning an additional surgery that night to start repair some of the damage. They weren’t sure yet. It was all very minute-to-minute decision making.

“Will he make it?” Tony blurted out.

“We’re not sure,” the doctor admitted.”He lost a lot of blood and the damage is extensive. We’ll know more in time, maybe not for hours.”

Bruce had more questions of course. Tony was stuck at “we’re not sure.” He wanted certainty, he wanted to know that Steve’s last words to him were not going to be about rescheduling their date, he wanted to know that he’d be sparring with Steve tomorrow, joking with him about running in the rain, eating breakfast and talking about the day’s news. 

“Anesthesia doesn’t work on him,” Tony blurted out.

Startled the doctor stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“Steve. It’s the super-soldier serum. Nothing has a long-term effect on him. Like anesthesia.”

The doctor made a note. “We were wondering about that. Anything else we should know, Dr. Banner?”

Tony slumped back into the uncomfortable bench and listened to Bruce explain a little more about Steve’s unusual physical condition. All he had to do was ask JARVIS and he’d know everything he needed to about the doctors and nurses involved in Steve’s care -- their education, certifications, their residencies, patients, research, everything. 

He wanted the doctor talking to them to be older. Fine, he graduated from Harvard Medical, had prestigious internships, and had checked off all the right boxes in his career. But at 40 he was too young to be working on Steve. Tony wanted someone with lots and lots of experience to be caring for his Steve.

Not that he could call Steve his Steve. Not yet. 

None of the team knew about them. 

The doctor was paged and had to go. “What do you think?” Natasha asked Bruce.

“It’s a wait and see situation, honestly. It’s Steve, so the odds are better than if he was a guy off the street.

“We should go back to the Tower,” Bruce said. “We’re not going to learn much more tonight.”

“No. I’m not going.”

“Tony, it’s all on Steve now. Sitting around here won’t help.”

Steve would know if Tony was there. He’d know. And Tony wasn’t leaving him all alone in this antiseptic place of beeping machines, florescent lights, and professional people in scrubs. They didn’t know Steve like he knew Steve.

“Nope. I’m staying. I’ve done it for all for my friends and I’m not deserting him.”

“It’s not deserting him,” Natasha said gently. “But it won’t hurt if we leave someone here, Bruce. Tony can understand what the doctors say. Clint can step in when Tony needs sleep.”

Bruce nodded. “If Steve makes it through the next couple of hours, I think he’ll pull through,” he said encouragingly.

~~~~~

Tony wasn’t a stranger to hospitals. More as a patient than the friend waiting for news. The nurses were kind to him, showing him the special waiting room for family and letting him know where the coffee was.

There was a small Christmas tree outside ICU that mocked Tony while he paced. Every little reminder of the cheerful holiday felt obscene to him while Steve fought for his life in yet another operating room. 

Steve. Steve. Steve.

When they first met, he thought that Steve was insufferable, authoritarian, stiff and humorless. He had no idea why his father worshiped the man. The golden older brother who could do no wrong and won all the awards.

How wrong he had been. Tremendously wrong. Stupendously wrong.

“Mr. Stark?” a nurse asked. “They’ve brought your friend up from recovery. Would you like to see him?”

They let him see Steve through the window of his ICU room. Steve lay there, still and not moving, and hooked up to dozens of machines and IVs. Bruises had formed on his face and chest. 

Tony put his hand on the window, longing to touch his -- well, friend. 

“How is he?” he asked.

The resident at his side said, “He’s stabilizing for now. We’ve taken out a couple of bullets and stitched up the perforations in his colon. We’re watching his lungs right now since there’s a possibility of damage there.” She mentioned more concerns but the list washed over Tony.

“He needs his sleep.” With the implication that Tony did too. “When he wakes up, we’ll get you.”

Tony was banished back to the waiting room. He kept turning over in his mind how a badly injured Steve still smiled at him. Smiled at Tony who had sent him into that damn building to nearly be killed by Hydra.

Clint gently shook him awake. “Come on, Stark, time to go home. My shift now.”

“No. Not leaving until I see Steve,” he muttered.

“Steve’s not waking up anytime soon. He’s going in for another surgery in an hour.”

Tony snapped awake. “What?”

“There was some internal bleeding or something wrong with his lungs. I didn’t catch the details. But both Bruce and Natasha say you have to go home.”

They sent Happy to collect him and deliver him back to the Tower. Happy knew how to handle him in case Tony tried to fight. He ended up back in his room, where he collapsed and slept for seven hours. 

He dreamed of Steve sitting next to him on a bench in Central Park in the heat of the summer. In a deep blue t-shirt and tan shorts, Steve pulled a sesame bagel out of a bag. He was talking about training or problems with the quinjet. Or maybe the Mets. Didn’t matter. 

Because that was when Tony knew he loved Steve. 

It was the most inexplicable thing. He had no idea when he had stopped thinking of Steve as just a friend. The change had been slow and undetectable. One day he cursed at Steve’s stubbornness, the next day he thought it was cute when Steve dug his heels in. Made no sense at all.

But here he was consumed entirely by fear and worry that Steve wouldn’t recover. 

There was no question he was heading back to the hospital after a shower and something to eat. He ignored the several text messages and the voicemail on his phone. No time for that nonsense.

He decided to drive to the hospital in case someone tried to stop him from going. He passed through his kitchen to grab a protein bar. Steve had talked him into at least trying the bars so that he wouldn’t starve. 

That’s when he saw the drawings Steve had left for him on the kitchen island. Three pages of drawings -- Tony in his workshop, at an Avengers training session, Tony sitting and looking out a window. A drawing of Steve and Tony on their second date at the Museum of Modern Art.

Tears sprung up behind his eyes. Tony never cried. He had always been taught that boys and men did not cry, not when they cut their finger building a robot, nor when they were sent off to boarding school. He hadn’t cried at his parents’ funeral. 

But his almost-boyfriend’s little gift when his almost-boyfriend could still be dying merited something.

Anger. Deep rage. He should go out there right now and scorch the earth hunting down every last Hydra soldier and leader. Make them pay for nearly killing the most beautiful thing in his life. He wanted to kick or hit or break something.

He slumped against the island, exhausted. He had to think of Steve first. Pointless anger and revenge wasn’t going to help Steve in the least. 

The car ride over to the hospital took forever and a day. Then the parking situation was unspeakably awful (why didn’t this hospital offer valet parking?). But he was there. 

Steve was now back in his room in ICU. They wouldn’t let Tony in the room.

Tony gritted his teeth and went back to the waiting room. He could have raged and thrown his weight and money around. God knows how many closed and barred doors miraculously opened to Tony’s money. But Steve would be angry with him if he found that Tony did any of that.

His breath caught in his throat. He never wanted to lose Steve over anything.

It was all still so, so fragile between them. Tony had to muster all his courage to ask Steve out. They’d been friends for a while by then, doing all the usual friend things, eating out, going to games, watching movies, talking long into the night about life, Avengers, the future. Then Tony had that life-changing moment in Central Park when he knew that he loved that stubborn, strong-willed man who could work miracles, especially with Tony by his side. 

Six months of pining, longing, dreaming, fear, worry, fretting after that moment in Central Park. Then he took that leap of faith and asked Steve during one of Steve’s many visits to the workshop about going out some Saturday night.

“Like a date?” Steve asked.

Tony’s heart beat so fast he thought he’d pass out. He agonized like he was in high school again, asking out the star quarterback, the boy of his dreams, the one he didn’t have a chance in hell with. 

“Yeah, something like that,” he downplayed it.

Steve smiled. Smiled like Tony had just announced that he had cured cancer. Smiled like he had been asked out by the guy he had a huge crush on. “That sounds great.”

The perfect, perfect date. Moonlight, dancing, great meal, and they stayed out until dawn, talking and joyful in each other’s company. Then that kiss to end all kisses on Tony’s doorstep. Tony hadn’t expected it, since Steve was the consummate 40s gentleman. But Steve lifted his chin and pressed his warm lips against Tony’s chapped ones. And Tony melted into Steve, pouring all that he could into the kiss. 

Steve took them to the Museum of Modern Art on a Wednesday afternoon and they talked art and movies over dinner. A little making-out on a couch in the Avengers living room, risking discovery, and then they were talking third date.

And, of course, Tony had to ruin it. He walked on air thinking of Steve and their next date. It had to be the best one yet. He called in a favor for a reservation at the best restaurant in the city, bought tickets to the front row of a Knicks game, arranged a private tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Steve would have to love him after that.

Steve found out. 

The subsequent fight had been ugly, but quick. In the end, Steve put his large, warm hands on Tony’s shoulders and looked Tony straight in the eye. “You don’t have to shower me with gifts and money to win me over. I’m fine with dinner and a walk in the park. It’s your time that I want, Tony, time with you.”

So their third date was going to be dinner at a restaurant around the corner, maybe a movie. Nothing planned, just time together.

Now, no third date either, only Tony waiting anxiously for news that Steve would live.

Clint and Natasha were in the waiting room. “Hey, we weren’t expecting you for a couple of hours,” Clint said.

“I’m here now. What’s the news?”

 

“Steve’s been stable for two hours. No bleeding and it looks like he’s starting to heal up,” Natasha said.

Oh, thank you, universe. Or whatever looks after brave, smart, funny super-soldiers who take on Hydra armies by themselves. “Good, when can we see him?”

“He’s not awake yet,” she said. “The doctors are still concerned. Usually people with that type of traumatic injuries die on site and never make it to the hospital.”

Bleary-eyed and weary, Clint packed up and left. Natasha pulled out her magazine trying to interest herself in the same article for the third time that day. Tony checked his phone, but couldn’t concentrate.

It would be easier if the team knew about him and Steve. It had happened so quickly between them that they never thought about saying something to the team. 

But Tony was too torn up about Steve, too worried that he could mess things up with Steve, and too guilty about pointing the Hydra base out to him to think straight.

A doctor came to the waiting room. “Are you here for Steven Rogers?”

Natasha sprung to her feet. “We are. What’s the news?”

“Nothing new. Which is the best news I could give you.”

“He’s healing, right? He heals fast,” Tony said, his voice tight and pinched.

“Um, his vitals are rapidly improving,” the doctor said. “But there were extensive internal injuries --”

“Can I see him?” Tony babbled. “I have to see him. I was there when he was injured.” _He smiled at me when I found him._

“Tony,” Natasha said, her hand on his arm. 

“I have to see him,” Tony insisted. _I love him, he’s everything to me. I can’t lose him. I just discovered him. I was wrong about him and found out that he’s the greatest thing on earth. He’s smart, he loves watching baseball, he frets over getting his drawings right. He gets this little wrinkle between his eye when he works out a problem or gets upset or is thinking hard._ “He’s, um, --”

“Tony is Steve’s boyfriend,” Natasha interrupted.

Tony’s head whipped around. Natasha nodded. “We guessed,” she told him. “Steve’s been very happy lately, and we put two and two together.” She pushed him. “Go.”

They checked Tony to make sure that he didn’t have any signs of a cold or sickness before they let him into Steve’s room.

It was quiet, even with the hum of the machines helping Steve. And there was Steve, with tubes running everywhere, bandaged up and dressed in a thin hospital robe.

But he was alive. So much more alive than the other day, when he almost bled out in Tony’s arms.

Tony pulled up a chair and watched the rise and fall of Steve’s chest. He knew a miracle when he saw it.

An hour later he fell asleep, his head leaning on the bed railing.He was drifting through an uneasy dream when he woke to the lovely feeling of a large hand patting him on the head.

Lifting his head, Tony looked over to see Steve watching him with those beautiful blue eyes. “Steve,” he breathed out.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes,Tony,” Steve said, managing to smile at the same time. The smile reached his eyes. “Thanks for coming for me.”

The questions about what went horribly wrong could wait for tomorrow or the next day. Confessions about how he messed up would be later. Right now, he wanted to bask in the warmth of those blue eyes. “Had to. Didn’t want to miss our date.”

“Aw, don’t. Hurts when I laugh,” Steve said. 

Tony took Steve’s hand in his and held it to his cheek. Then he blurted out, “I love you.” He froze. Too early for that. It would scare Steve off.

But there were tears in Steve’s eyes. “I love you, too.”

“When you get out of here, mister, I’ll take you --”

“Tony, when I get out here, let’s just stay in. See where it goes.”

“Yeah, that -- that sounds like a very good plan.”

“Master tactician here, trust me.”

Tony rubbed his hand. “Get better, Steve.” 

“Hey, I have a date with the greatest guy on earth. I have to get better.”

Tony figured that the nurses would wrestle him down to the ground if he tried to kiss Steve. So he settled on smiling at him, willing him to heal up. He had a lot to share and a lot of time to spend with his boyfriend.


End file.
